During spring vacation when I was in kindergarten, my brothers and I decided we’d try to fly like birds. We knew that people couldn’t fly, but that didn’t stop us. We were excited by the thought that we’d be the first to do so. For our launch pad, we chose the playground near our house. We tried swinging and then leaping into the air, flapping our arms wildly. Of course, we kept falling to the ground. Next we climbed to the top of the slide and took turns jumping off, again flapping as hard as we could—only to drop again and again to the sand beneath the slide. We were lucky that we didn’t get hurt. All morning we tried to fly, until finally we gave up and went home, satisfied that we’d given it our best shot.

The great thing about being a kid, I think, is that your imagination can make life full of wondrous adventures. Leonardo da Vinci, one of the world’s greatest geniuses, was a lot like a kid who never completely grew up. Even when he was working, he seemed to be playing, always looking at the world and asking, “I wonder what would happen if …” He had great enthusiasm for experimenting with different ways of doing things and for exploring new ideas—including trying to fly! I hope that when you meet Leonardo in this new Merlin Mission, you will feel that you’ve made an amazing new friend.